Thomas Edison arrives in Boston.

(March) Edison, 21, lives initially at 4 Bullfinch Place, and later at 44 Cambridge Street and on Exeter Street. He becomes a telegraph operator for Western Union office and works on his own projects in the attic of the shop of Charles Williams Jr. near today’s 15 Sudbury Street (then 109 Court Street). His first invention is an electric vote recorder machine; his next a stock ticker for the Boston Stock Exchange. He and Frank Hannaford subsequently establish a telegraph shop at 9 Wilson Lane, but unable to enlist investors for his various projects,  Edison moves to New York City in 1869.